


Of Old and Elder

by AnnaDruvez



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Horror, Sort Of, a bit comedic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 13:24:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19296649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaDruvez/pseuds/AnnaDruvez
Summary: Some horrors endure through the ages. Some monsters devour other monsters.





	Of Old and Elder

**Author's Note:**

> So, this slammed into my head out of nowhere. Call me baffled, dazed, and confused as to where it came from.

The first thing Jane remembers from her childhood is Grandmother Whitney - _Whitney, child, never our real name_ \- rocking on their porch on Mindoir. Her gray hair was pulled into a bun with a bit of frizz escaping. She’d tuck it back behind one ear as she darned a sock or stitched a square for a quilt, her hands working impossibly fast as she told stories - tales of Maine from before even she was born, warnings of how others saw them, careful lessons on how to be human and not Other. Legends of how their line combined the ancient War into a single clan.

 

Grandmother told her of how her family had been discovered, hidden, and discovered again. Of how great-great-great grandmother Eliza, for whom the eventual Jane was named, had divined that something would come to wipe out all life - even theirs - and the Plan had been born. How the women of the family had gone into the Depths, seducing and breeding until they could breed no more. How those children had been delivered anonymously to any hospital that they could find, cuckoos to someday save their kind. How the mothers, aunts, fathers, and uncles had then sought them out and quietly taught them their heritage and to masquerade as the normal that they could never truly be….

 

When the colony was attacked by Batarians, her Grandmother smiled as they shot at her. She laughed and slid Away, slipping to where Jane knew she would wait at the bottom of the sea. For, in the end, the family knew that the Call would sound.

 

When the Alliance came, Jane told them that Eliza Whitney had been taken by the Batarians. In that abattoir, in truth, she had reforged herself into Jane Shephard. Though the grunts knew nothing of it, she knew that the high command heaved a sigh of relief. Their kind was not wanted in the universe, much less anywhere near a reputable human colony.

 

Her grandmother had told her, in those lazy days on the porch, that the stars were just as much in her blood as the sea. Her first moment in space solidified that into Truth, and Jane Shephard enrolled in the Alliance Navy the moment that they’d have her. Her blood could have given her away but, like all that embodied her kind, it was slippery and sneaky and hid itself behind a facade of humanity.

 

She suppressed the chaos within her skin, becoming a near paragon in the ranks. Boot camp, combat, Akuze, N school…. She was climbing as high as she could as quickly as she could, aiming for the command of a ship and the rights to sail her. In case of discovery, every spare credit was hidden in accounts that even Asari intelligence would struggle to identify.

 

She met Kaiden Alenko and he smelled good. He smelled like potential, like the salt of the sea and the brood she would lay. Fortunately, she died before she could reveal herself in seduction. One look at her eyes and he had denounced her, how would he have reacted to knowing she was Other? He was genetically ideal, but his attitude was such that he’d have turned her over to the Alliance for what she was.

 

Garrus Vakarian smelled like Family in a distant way. A decent mate, perhaps, but not for her. Once, she thought, one of her kind must have visited Palaven. Still, he showed now knowledge of the Other, even as he accepted the strange mannerisms she stopped hiding around him. He became the Family she missed, and hoped to one day rejoin.

 

He wisely didn’t comment every time she had to restock her fish tank after a snack.

 

“Why,” Miranda asked once, “did your eyes go from pale blue to the dark teal? They’re almost black at times…. It shouldn’t have happened.”  
  
Whether the question was meant to have an answer or not, Jane didn’t know. She merely met Miranda’s eyes and let the Depths show. Death had woken the part of her that the Family had kept hidden for centuries, the part that still remembered when Man was Ape and the world belonged to Them. That part reached for Miranda. The Cerberus agent backed away, made her excuses, and tried to seem like she wasn’t fleeing in atavistic terror.

 

Miranda would later do her best to forget the feel of pressure around her, the darkness enveloping and lapping at soaked skin, and the primitive drums of an ancient festival reverberating in her bones. She soon discovered that alcohol was good for that and Asari liquors worked particularly well.

 

Miranda never spoke of it again to anyone, but especially not Jane. Still, she was loyal and the rescue of her sister secured that loyalty beyond even her own species. Were Jane male, she would have Chosen her. As it was, she debated finding and introducing her to more Family but ultimately decided that she was too easily frightened of the Other to take meeting another one.

 

Thane Krios was a surprise. She’d never known that aliens could match so well. She fell in love with the scent of leather, scales, and gun oil. Still, Kaiden had made her wary of revelation. She carefully poked and prodded, looking for the flaws that she didn’t find and those flaws that she did, then accepted him into her bed in the human way.

 

He was perfect in ways no human was. He already worshiped the sea but loved the stars. His gods, like hers, were of the oceans. If her willingness to learn his ways and her eagerness to join his prayers shocked him, he held it inside. He did not know why she abandoned the supposed gods of humanity, but she could see that part of him rejoiced in the sharing with her.

 

If he had asked, she would have told him that the Ocean and the Stars themselves were her gods and that his were merely part of them. He did not ask.

 

The Other would wait. Patience, she now knew, was the key to this man. Patience would let her initiate his Change and heal the way his body fought itself. Patience led her to stand by his side with Kolyat as he recited his prayer to Kalahira.

 

Patience had her leaning down and kissing him. Patience had her transferring what was necessary in these last moments. Patience had him seizing and crying out, even as nurses and doctors shoved Kolyat and herself away to tend him. Patience had his heart monitor stopping for a moment, two, then starting up again.

 

He leveraged himself up, coughing and choking and gagging as his body rejected the mucous that had coated his lungs. All of it. Sludge dripped from his mouth onto the floor as he sucked in great breaths that would have killed him an hour ago. He grasped his chest as his body cramped from the strain of rebuilding tissue and ejecting the unwanted fluid.

 

She felt Kolyat’s suspicious gaze as she waited for the First Change to take, as she prayed the mate she had chosen would survive. She knew he would remember every flinch at each wheezy inhale and every shudder at each paroxysm.

 

Finally, the fit ended and Thane sat up. He was fully awake and aware, looking the epitome of Drell health. Doctors and nurses poked and prodded and declared a miraculous recovery, trying to take credit for it even as they debated what tests they should run to determine how it happened. Thane looked to her. She shook her head once.

 

The doctors were disappointed when he checked himself out against their advice, declining further treatment.

 

That night, in her apartment with Kolyat bearing witness, Thane turned to her. “Could this work for all Drell?”

 

“No,” she admitted. “It’s… a long story.”

 

Thane settled on the sofa. “I find myself with unexpected time, Siha.”

 

“I suppose you do,” she laughed. Her laughter faded and she poured herself a drink. “Once, before written history, Earth was different. Primitive man worshiped beings from Beyond the stars and the deepest Depths of the oceans. These Beings sometimes blessed their worshipers with progeny, hybrids of their blood and humanity.

 

“For a normal person, to look directly on an Old One or an Elder God is to know madness in a way that cannot be described. They defy logic. Their shapes exist in dimensions we cannot perceive. Our brains, in trying to make sense of Them, break themselves.

 

“Time passed and mankind did what mankind does - developed fear of that which they did not understand and could never control. Stories abounded of how They would destroy the world. Doomsday cults spread the tales as insane men decided that this was something that they wanted. The truth is far more pragmatic, of course. Malevolence for the sake of malevolence is wasteful. It’s not that They want humanity dead. It’s that They, for the most part, simply don’t care.”

 

She sipped her drink and Thane cocked his head thoughtfully. “You are one of these hybrids?”

 

“In a way. My great-great-great-great-great grandfather was. As was his mate. Mankind, of course, classified us as being just as evil as they thought They were. So, we were hunted by those who knew. As man reached for the stars, those in the know did their damnedest to make sure we never left Earth. Great-great-great grandmother Eliza was a Seer, though, and knew what would come.

 

“She put together a Plan and, through that Plan, made sure that we could escape. We took other names - Witney, Whately, Whalen…. Our young were adopted out, then contacted when they were old enough to understand and taught to hide themselves. Some, we missed and those added to the horrific stories and prejudice as they approached their Final Change and lashed out in their confused terror. Some developed abhorrent practices that… Well, sometimes you’re glad to see the family tree pruned.

 

“Nonetheless, we persevered. Thanks to Eliza, we knew that something was coming. Something that would kill everything it could find. Not just humans, but whatever else was out their and Them as well.”

 

“How does that lead to me?” His face was unreadable, but not due to rejection. She could tell he was reserving judgment until he had all the facts.

 

“You are my Mate.” She smiled hesitantly, and found herself bolstered as his lips quirked in silent agreement to that assertion. “We can alter our mates to become closer to us. It’s a multi-stage process and doesn’t have to be completed, but the first stage heals all the physical ailments that our mate’s body might have accrued and prevents further illnesses that the mate’s species would be prone to. The second prepares the body for the Final Change.”

 

“And the last stage?”

 

“I can only trigger the first two for now.” She shrugged. “Once upon a time, I would have reached my Final Change by this age, but Gran Eliza…. She only had the blood of the Depths. When she reached out and added the blood from Those Beyond the Stars, our lifespans became longer and the time to Change lengthened with it.

 

“Eventually,” she sucked in a breath to fortify herself, “I’ll no longer look human or even humanoid. I will be what humans view as a monster, able to travel in any environment at my whim.”

 

“This is why you accepted Kalahira so easily.”

 

“Yes.” She swallowed. “The depths are my home. How can I not love a goddess of the sea?”

 

“I must meditate on this, but…” Her heart climbed into her throat as he paused. “I believe I will likely join you in your fate.”

 

Relief coursed through her and she smiled. Kolyat said nothing, focusing more on the fact that his father was alive than what it would mean for his eventual existence.

 

The Catalyst did not expect what it found. To the Catalyst, all modern aliens were humanoid - or, at least, small enough to be contained within its walls. To the humans that knew the truth, the aliens that the Catalyst knew were just the tip of the iceberg. When Shepard found herself facing it, she laughed at the plans of the being in front of her.

 

“We are not going to bow to your whims.”

 

The AI moved back in confusion. “What?”

 

Her eyes, black as the ocean, deepened further to become the Void between the stars. A chorus echoed within her as she spoke. “We have prepared for you, tinker toy.”

 

Across the galaxy, the oceans erupted as their denizens rose. Runic arrays, so different from the Relays yet similar, burned in the space around worlds. Tendrils, tentacles, and masses of eyes and mouths abounded as organic monsters that dwarfed Nazara and Sovereign combined, creatures that might have inspired their design but exceeded them in so many ways, entered reality from Their home dimensions and ancient resting places. The Catalyst and the Reapers tried to classify Them - kraken, squid, blob of oozing flesh, lobster, jellyfish - but failed as pieces and parts faded into and out of existence.

 

The remnants of the Alliance High Command panicked as Cthulhu rose from the Pacific waters, R’lyeh ascending with him. A circle of runes burned beside Him and He passed through, beyond the Omega 4 Relay, to begin the fight there.

 

Anyone that hadn’t thought it was the end of days was convinced as they watched a lobster-shaped Chattur’gha slice through a Reaper with a single snap of His claw.

 

Yog Soggoth roared - somehow audible in the vacuum - as His tentacles engulfed and crushed the Reaper that tried to fire upon Him near Mindoir.

 

Ulyaoth engulfed a Reaper over Palaven and the other two in orbit fled as they saw their comrade start to decompose inside the gigantic jellyfish. He sent out a beam of energy that destroyed them both in impressive fireballs.

 

Xel’lotath, four armed lady that She was, grasped one in orbit of Thessia and cracked it open as the insanity She radiated reduced those around her to whimpering terror.

 

Mantorok ripped His way from His Cambodian prison and His near-amoebic blob of flesh, eyes, and mouths wrapped around the nearest Reaper to absorb it. Seeing the battle for Earth was under control, He joined Cthulhu on His hunt.

 

Nyarlathotep worked His way across the dark side of Tuchanka, destroying everything on the surface, before He reformed into a bat-like creature, ascended to space, and grew to a size that dwarfed the Reaper He was shortly devouring. Krogans later swore that their new god, The Crawling Chaos, burped after he finished his meal.

 

The Old Ones were, of course, not alone.

 

Eli'nata'yrath, Lin or Elinra to Family and her few friends, rose from the Depths of Kahje to defend Her favored people. Kolyat would later learn that the light display from the startled Hanar - who hadn’t even known She was there - was considered both extremely beautiful and disturbing by those Drell that witnessed it.

 

Her shape, similar to a lion fish though with more tentacle than fin, glistened with scales of a deep and murky green. Her stripes were purest silver, though, and made it easy for witnesses to track Her through the darkness of space. The Reaper tried to flee, but She simply brushed passed it. It froze then seized as Her poison worked on its cybernetic body. It contorted into odd shapes, then relaxed into stillness.

 

A flip of Her tail smacked it into the vague direction of the sun.

 

Ydrisalan’isar, resembling a swarm of piranha that was oddly connected by tendrils of flesh that moved in and out of view without seeming to move at all, rose from the southern Atlantic off the coast of Brazil. Like that piranha swarm, Salan stripped the nearest Reaper of its organic components in moments. Then, His tentacles wrapped around and crushed the metallic remains.

 

Shavalyoth was nearly invisible as it appeared in the dark around Omega. The Reaper dying, however, was evidence enough of the Shadow’s presence.

 

A quarian in the Flotilla was more than a bit perturbed when her cat - a risky thing for those in enviro suits to have, but she’d always been a bit off - walked through the hull of the ship. She was shortly much larger than the ship, or even the entire Flotilla, and was batting around a terrified Reaper like a catnip toy. The quarian in question just hoped that Pasht didn’t hold a grudge for the declawing.

 

Also rising to the sky were the members of the Family. Whitney, Whately, Whalen… those that had undergone the Final Change moved to the stars to support their Ancestors. In and around Them dragons, fish, avians and demonic appearing abominations flit back and forth, smaller and quicker than their forebearers, to take out the remaining heretic geth and the indoctrinated humanoid ship crews that supported the Reapers.

 

On the planets, shoggoths cleared the streets, their massive forms crushing and absorbing their enemies. Beside and around them, living shadows and toothy vines devoured and buried the invaders. Nightmarish zombies, some without skin and others only blackened skin on bone, acted as canon fodder.

 

Black Guardians, taller than some houses, stomped around and crushed husks underfoot or threw bits of rubble to squash them.

 

Lesser guardians darted back and forth, killing and eating as they chose. Interestingly enough, the husks seemed to taste better to them than the unindoctrinated. At least, that’s what the Council would assert later. Assigning intelligence would, after all, result in them having rights and the Council was far too creeped out by the whole affair to allow that.

 

Whisper thin creatures climbed up husks’ faces and crawled inside their bodies, taking control and forcing them to attack their fellows. A bonethief, Shepard reflected in her rapidly widening perception, was perhaps the most terrifying of her relatives.

 

The Catalyst screamed in rage and frustration. It turned to Shephard. “You cannot do this! Organic life will end if we don’t cull it now!”

 

Shephard smiled a grin that widened inhumanly far. “Your logic is flawed - you fight Entropy itself. In time, all things must end. Though, even if you were correct, what care I for logic?”

 

The Catalyst tried to focus its defenses on her, only for her blood to splatter on the ground as tentacles burst from her skin and pierced the circuits that made up the Citadel. She tore them asunder as her human flesh sloughed from her true body to reveal scales and lithe muscle. A hundred eyes blinked and a hundred mouths laughed at the freedom she felt as she was released from the constricted shell she’d worn for so long.

 

She reached out, finding Thane through the link her Changes in him had wrought. A simple thought triggered him to join her as she evolved. Feeling her amusement, he sent a curious thought her way. “Siha?”

 

“I always knew my Final Change would be dramatic, but this is ridiculous.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> According to Lovecraft, Cthulhu arrived on Earth around the time that Pangaea started to break up. That's almost 200 million years there. He's likely older than our planet, so.... Fairly certain that he's older than the Citadel.
> 
> I have no idea if Leviathans are related to the Old Ones. Could be. Seems likely. Don't care. ;p


End file.
